Day-by-Day / October 17, 1803

October 17, 1803

Wine with Col. Rodney

Clark and Lewis share wine with Thomas Rodney whose bateaux is moored at Louisville. Rodney mistakenly thinks Clark’s brother, George Rogers Clark, is William’s father.

In Washington City, President Jefferson gives his third Annual Message to Congress.

Visiting Colonel Rodney

In the evening Captain Lewis and his companion Captain Clark, son of Genl. Clark, called at our boat to see us and took a glass of wine with us and bid us adieu. They do not go off till next week, yet as they have a better boat and will be strong handed they expect to overtake us tho we shall set off tomorrow.
—Thomas Rodney[1]17 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), … Continue reading

In fact, Lewis and Clark would not overtake Rodney’s batteaux. Rodney turned down the Mississippi on 9 November, and Lewis and Clark arrived at Fort Massac—a few miles upstream from the Mississippi—on 11 November 1803.

Old General Clark

Rodney’s assumption that General George Rogers Clark was the father—rather than the older brother—of William (see above), can be understood in the context of this 1805 description of the older brother:

General Clark has now become frail and rather helpless, but there, are the remains of great dignity and manliness in his countenance, person and deportment, and I was struck on seeing him with (perhaps) a fancied likeness to the great and immortal Washington.
—Josiah Epsy[2]Josiah Epsy, Memorandums of a Tour Made by Josiah Epsy in the States of Ohio and Kentucky and Indiana Territory in 1805 (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1870), 14

Jefferson’s Annual Message to Congress

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior measures which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and temporary government of the country; for its incorporation into our Union; for rendering the change of government a blessing to our newly adopted brethren; for securing to them the rights of conscience and property; for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their occupancy and self-government, establishing friendly commercial relations with them, and for ascertaining the geography of the country acquired.

. . . . .

Another important acquisition of territory has also been made since the last session of Congress. The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia Indians, with which we have never had a difference, reduced by the wars and wants of savage life to a few individuals, unable to defend themselves against the neighboring tribes, has transferred its country to the United States, reserving only for its members what is sufficient to maintain them in an agricultural way.[3]Annals of Congress, 7th Cong., 11–13 at “A Century of Lawmaking,” Library of Congress, accessed 11 August 2022, … Continue reading

 

Notes

Notes
1 17 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 124.
2 Josiah Epsy, Memorandums of a Tour Made by Josiah Epsy in the States of Ohio and Kentucky and Indiana Territory in 1805 (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1870), 14
3 Annals of Congress, 7th Cong., 11–13 at “A Century of Lawmaking,” Library of Congress, accessed 11 August 2022, https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llac&fileName=013/llac013.db&recNum=3.

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  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.